Chult Hex Crawl - IC

[Dr.Samurai]

Ondros Loxodon Rune Knight Fighter AC: 18 HP: 22/64 PPer: 12 PInv: 10 PIns: 20 Second Wind: 1/1 | Action Surge: 1/1 Frost Rune: 0/1 | Stone Rune: 1/1 Giant's Might: 3/3 Traits: Darkvision 120ft Conditions: -- Hmm? Ondros replies to Red, Did I? He looks around, Oh, it seems I did. Those are nasty buggers. He waits as Red inspects the area and then pulls the thing out. He lingers around the strange woman, seemingly confused if he should leave her or watch over her. To the captain he says, I'd as soon leave a sign there warning others to stay away and never return to that tower.

[The Hellbug]

"Wow, you guys really had a big fight, eh? Also, you all really stink."

Nolwenn lets the halfling's observation sit in the air for a whole couple seconds before she turns to her and delivers straight-faced: "You know what? We didn't notice."

_____

Nolwenn had sought out Cyril as soon as she had cleaned herself up, leaving the previously goop-covered garments hanging on the rail, unsure if she can afford to throw them out or not. The dragonborn finds the source of the wizard's pain easily enough, but extracting the foreign object proves to be more difficult than predicted. She grits her teeth to avoid screaming the second time the ship's surgeon goes in for the spine, and her vision is starting to go dark when she hears a laugh of triumph, followed by the sweet relief of the spike being removed.

Still breathing heavily, she lays her head back and closes her eyes, thinking about how she's going to need to clean up again, but the revelation of what exactly has been removed can't wait. Nolwenn looks on in horror at the wriggling spine. "The others! We need to..." but Red is already on it as the wizard rouses herself.

_____

Nolwenn catches up with Red as he's removing the spine from Ondros. "You didn't notice?" she remarks, stunned by the loxodon's endurance. Hers had hurt like a new hell was growing in her arm! "Alright, we're going to need to check everyone who was injured," she announces, "just"--a moment of dizziness reminds her of the severity of her own injuries--"give me a moment."

And that means you too, Des!

[Pyrophilios]

The Red Horns had used a simple prestidigitation to clean himself and Ondros, before he went to work. Now he looked to Draelin:

"Oh, right, Draelin, you caught a few as well, didn't you?"

On the way over to him he made a detour to Nolwenn and touched her lightly, letting flow healing energies to keep the wizard going.

"Right, let's see what we have here. Don't move, this could hurt a little."

Spoiler

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Cure Wounds on Nolwenn (1d8+5)[9]

Medicine - Exploration on Draelin (1d20+3)[18]/(1d20+3)[17]+(1d4)[2]

Medicine extraction (1d20+3)[23]/(1d20+3)[17]+(1d4)[2]+(1d6)[1]

[Dr.Samurai]

Ondros Loxodon Rune Knight Fighter AC: 18 HP: 21/64 PPer: 12 PInv: 10 PIns: 20 Second Wind: 1/1 | Action Surge: 1/1 Frost Rune: 0/1 | Stone Rune: 1/1 Giant's Might: 3/3 Traits: Darkvision 120ft Conditions: -- Ondros nods in thanks to Red as he cleans off the slime and stench from Ondros. He looms over Red as the man works to get the spines out of Draelin. He winces, How are you feeling Draelin?

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn is stuck between not wanting to tear her eyes away from Red's work for a second and pacing anxiously. A few times, she editorializes on the undead tiefling's work to varying degrees of helpfulness, from a "Wait! A little to the left!" here to a "Oooh, stop pulling, it needs a deeper cut" there. When he finishes, she waits for Draelin's answer to the loxodon's question before allowing herself to breathe a sigh of relief.

[agignac]

Draelin looked up at the loxodon and said, "I feel like I almost died. And like I'm not far from it again."

Eku, who had been trying to communicate in vain to the ex-prisoner, came over to Draelin. She laid her hands on his chest, closed her eyes, and began to chant softly. The many wounds caused by the fight and the surgeries began to close, until the elf's skin was smooth and undamaged. He still looked very pale.

Grabbing Eku's hand, he squeezed it and thanked her. He then lay in his hammock to rest.

Azaka wrinkled her nose in revulsion of the twitching spines. Slapping her closed fist on her chest, she declared, "I will go with you to fight this monster. Will we fight today, or tomorrow?"

[The Hellbug]

After Red's healing magic, Nolwenn would firmly consider herself sore and tired but able to continue on, a condition she discovers after tenderly peeking under her bandages and testing her movement with a few stretches. Azaka's insistence on joining in the slaying of the demon worm takes the wizard by surprise but, given the fact that she at least has the look of a warrior, is appreciated, especially given Draelin's condition.

"Ideally today if you ask me," she opines, "I don't want to give it a chance to create more minions. The only time I need is enough to skim through the journals we found and a quick rest to catch my breath and refocus my magic. Speaking of which, those are my highest priority right now, so if you all will excuse me..."

Nolwenn finds a quiet place to cast her spell of language understanding and takes a quick skim through the recovered journals. Desdemona joins her and they both snack as she reads, paying extra attention to who the journals and tower belonged to, who and what the caged woman could be, and how there came to be a horrible demon worm at the tower's base. While doing so, she half bends an ear towards Eku's attempts to communicate with the woman from the tower and resolves to use the same spell to do so when she gets a chance.

Spoiler: OOC

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Ritual Comprehend Languages.

[Pyrophilios]

"Not so fast. I need to prepare and create a lantern to reveal the invisible creatures. It's magic light should also help to pierce the unnatural darkness. And finally, I need to rebuild my construct after it's total destruction. Tomorrow morning when the sun is up, we should be ready for another try."
The Red Horns once again disagreed with Nolwenn.

[agignac]

Nolwenn studied the journals. Even with her spell, comprehending the language was a difficult and headache inducing task. The letters seemed to swim on the paper, reluctant to be read. It took many hours, and repeated castings of her ritual, to even skim them.

The journals told a story of a powerful magic user (though they didn't reveal his name). He was married and had several children, and outlived them all. He speaks at length of the lives of his family, of his grandchildren and great grandchildren, and their accomplishments. He also speaks of the nearby villages, the mountains, and the beautiful view.

The journals also speak of his growing obsession with summoning, mastering, and controlling other entities. The prisoner he refers to as a "Hellym", though he never refers to her by a name. She was one of the many creatures that he captured with his summoning magics. Apparently he captured two of them, the prisoner, and a second, younger Hellym - he conjectured it was a sibling or an offspring. He used the younger one as a hostage to keep the older one cooperative.

He didn't know where he summoned her from, and didn't seem to care, only how she could help him. With experimentation, he determined she could phase through any non-living material except water and fire, both of which she was afraid of and could be used to control her. She could take a living creature/plant with her when she phased, but any non-living matter (clothes, weapons, money etc) would be left behind. This made her rather useless as a burglar, other than as a method of getting into locked places and unlocking them.

Many of the creatures he summoned were very dangerous. There were some big fights and near deaths. Finally he figured out making the impenetrable cage to summon them within. Then the Hellym could get him out once the new prisoner arrived, and he could study it more safely. The Hellym could also move them in and out of the cage as required. Many died soon after arrival. Those that survived, he used if he could. If not, he studied, vivisected them, and killed them.

The worm was the most recent summons. It had turned out to be too large for the cage, and something went wrong with the spell. It ended up appearing on an old summoning circle downstairs. Banishing it didn't work. The last few pages outline how the wizard was going to try to banish it using the summoning circle that it was already on, in conjunction with a larger magic circle he had constructed around the tower (with some mourning for the necessary destruction of his garden). The combination was meant to banish the worm either to another plane, or perhaps even a parallel dimension.

The final entry said that the wizard was prepared to attempt his ritual, and was going down to the bathing room (the floor above the worm) to cast it.

[Pyrophilios]

The Red Horns went to work. Taking apart a ship lantern, he etched runes into the glass and assembled it again. Now it shone with a bright, greenish tinged light. That done, he began to reassemble his construct, using silver wire and whatever small sticks of wood he could find on board. Once his helper was completed, he went to find Nolwenn, to get an update on the journal contents.

Spoiler

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Removing the infusion from my armor to create the lantern.

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn sends the halfling twins to fetch her allies when she's finishing off her skim of the notebooks. They find the wizard in the shade of strung-up canvas using an assortment of crates and barrels to make a workplace of sorts, where she's spent the whole afternoon. The wizard slides a sheet of parchment across one of these crates to her two companions. Though it contains every interesting fact she pulled from the notebooks, she presents her conclusions herself.

"Here's what I learned so far," Nolwenn begins, "this tower belonged to a somewhat vile old wizard. I don't know what his exact aim was, but he was in the business of summoning extraplanar entities so that he could experiment on them, usually lethally. He apparently, though, made exception to those that could be useful to him. That's where our prisoner comes in. He calls her a hellym--" she taps the word on her microtranslation for emphasis "--I don't know what that is, but he used her ability to travel through solid objects to make his experiments safer, and he assured her cooperation by holding another of her kind, kin, he assumed, hostage. Truly horrid." The runaway arcane dilettante has already begun mulling over some ideas about that whole situation, but she wants to get to the most pressing matter first, not to mention needing a chance to speak to the hellym now that she's more prepared.

"The worm is the result of his final summoning," she continues, "I believe that in an attempt to banish the creature, he transported his whole tower here, lethally for him. Unfortunately, his method for summoning was quite haphazard; he doesn't seem to have cared whence he pulled his subjects, only that he summoned them, so I can't begin to guess where that creature is from or any weakness it may have. I plan on speaking to the prisoner next."

____________

Once she gets a chance, Nolwenn seeks out the prisoner. "Hello!" she greets her amiably, knowing the tone is more important than the words, "I was wondering if you needed anything to eat or drink." To demonstrate, the wizard produces a piece of hard bread and a slice of dried meat along with a waterskin. She takes a bite of each and drinks from the waterskin before offering each to the hellym, though she is very delicate with the water, not knowing exactly what the woman's relationship with it is.

[agignac]

The prisoner sits up slowly. She shades her eyes with a thin, long-figured hand. It might just be the sunlight, but she seems to look a bit better than she did in the tower.

She accepts the bread, and takes a few small bites. She also accepts the waterskin, and uses it to soften the bread a bit. She wrinkles her nose a bit, but eats it anyway. In her lyrical language, she says "Thank you." The meat she sniffs, then makes a horrified face and hands back to you.

[The Hellbug]

"Ha! Yes!" Nolwenn exclaims, dropping the jerky, "you're welcome, you're welcome." To explain her excitement, she puts her hand to her mouth and mimes speaking, points at the outsider, and then taps her own ear. "I'm Nolwenn, Nol-wenn," she reintroduces herself, tapping her own chest then holding her hand palm up towards the woman, "you are?"

When she looks confused, the wizard repeats her first set of gestures, trying to indicate that she can understand her, then beckons encouragingly with both hands.

[agignac]

"Nol-wenn." The hellym repeats Nolwenn's name, managing to make it sound like a bird call. She points to her chest and makes a sound that is untranslatable by Nolwenn's spell. If it's her name, it sounds like a flute trill. Then she asks, "You understand me now? You have the magic, like the Master?"

[Pyrophilios]

The Red Horns watched with fascination as Nolwenn tried to communicate with the celestial.

"Are you getting anything useful from her about the tower? Maybe she knows of some weakness of the tentacle creature that we could exploit. Using an unreliable summoning ritual to get the job done probably isn't the best solution."

[The Hellbug]

"Yes!" Nolwenn replies, nodding vigorously but holds up a finger when Red interrupts, "one moment though."

The wizard turns to the tiefling. "I plan to," she explains, "but she's a double-refugee right now so I'm not planning on opening with an interrogation. Give me some time. I'm going to try to convince her that we're interested in her situation, maybe helping her if we can, and that she should help us with the tower in general in any way she can." The wizard doesn't however, mention that she'd be interested in trying to help the stranded woman anyway, but this is a message for Red, not for her. "But you can help. I can understand her, but she can't understand us. If I get stuck trying to convey something, someone else might have a better idea how."

And with that said, Nolwenn's back to the hellym. She points to herself and the woman. "Nolwenn..." she begins say as an accompaniment to the pointing, but when the wizard tries to reproduce the sound that the woman across from her made, it's more of screech than trill. Her next attempt isn't any better. A little embaressed, Nolwenn composes herself with a breath and casts a spell, using an illusion to create the sound the hellym had made. "There. Nolwenn." She points to herself. "And--" Using her spell to conjure the woman's apparent name again, she points across to the other woman. "Welcome to our world," she greets with a bow.

Since the communication is much easier one way than the other, Nolwenn waits for a moment to see if the former prisoner will say anything from which to start the conversation.

[Dr.Samurai]

Ondros Loxodon Rune Knight Fighter AC: 18 HP: 21/64 PPer: 12 PInv: 10 PIns: 20 Second Wind: 0/1 | Action Surge: 1/1 Frost Rune: 0/1 | Stone Rune: 1/1 Giant's Might: 3/3 Traits: Darkvision 120ft Conditions: -- Ondros listens beside Red as Nolwenn conveys what she is gleaning from the conversation. To Eku, he says, There is a window at the bottom of the tower that is broken. The creature is keeping it plugged with a tentacle. I think if we can swim down to the bottom of the tower, we attack the tentacle that is plugging the window and either sever it, or force the creature to pull it back. The tower will flood, and the creature will hopefully drown. That way, we do not risk... whatever it is that happened to Red's construct. Spoiler: Second Wind Show (1d10+6)[8]

[Pyrophilios]

"Hm, diving to a large tentacle with those jelly fish around doesn't sound appealing either, to be honest. I'd rather throw things from above at the monster. Acid would be my go to elemental damage, but there is a good chance it's immune or at least resistant to that approach.

But let's wait with the planning until Nolwenn has finished the interview.

Note to myself, I should really research how to make potions of comprehending - or better even create a helmet of comprehend languages."

The Red Horns muttered to himself.

[agignac]

The hellym waited a moment to see if Nolwenn would try any further communication. When it was clear the other woman was waiting, she said, "Thank you for taking me from that place." She looks around the boat, then frowns. "I don't understand were this sea came from. Did you bring the water?"

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn shakes her head 'no' but is quietly satisfied that this appears to back up her 'failed-banishment-into-teleportation' hypothesis. She's still unsure, however, if this tower is from her own plane or another, and she supposes she doesn't know enough about far-off geography to ever know for sure if she will. How to explain, though...

Aha!

The wizard fetches a pail and casts it over the side to reel in a bucketful of seawater, which she sets at her feet. Next, she casts a pair of illusions, confident that all the work after exploring the tower has all but guaranteed that she and her companions won't enter it again until she has had a chance to rest. The first is an idyllic panorama on the far side of the boat, the second is a tiny copy of the boat, the size of one a child might have as a toy, the floats in the bucket.

"We--" she points all around to all those gathered and the rest of the boat "--are here."

She dismisses the boat and conjures up a tiny tower over in her illusory landscape. "You--" she points just at the hellym and then the tower "--were captive here. Where that is and where you're from before that I don't know." She scratches her head and shrugs to try indicate her lack of knowledge.

Next, Nolwenn walks over to her little panorama and, with her finger, traces a ring of arcane symbols around the tower, which appear on the ground around the tower as she does so. Then, she mimes some arcane gestures and, with a flash provided by a simple cantrip, transports the tower image into the bucket. "Not Nolwenn," she says, shaking her head and pointing to herself then tapping on the journal and nodding, "that was your master." Lastly, she dissolves the diorama and brings the boat back to the bucket where it sails up next to the tower.

Thinking that that explanation was pretty clever and probably as clear as she's going to get, Nolwenn moves on to satisfying Red's curiosity. "We--" the same gesturing towards the group "--wish to slay the monster in the tower." One illusion becomes a picture of the tower's worm, at which Nolwenn makes a disgusted but serious face and shakes her head. "It's clearly evil and ought to be destroyed," she says and adds a tiny loxodon that rushes towards it with a maul. Just as it's about to strike, though, both images disappear and the wizard shrugs. "How?"

[agignac]

The hellym watches intently as Nolwenn tells her tale through illusions. She mutters an explanation to herself as the story unfolds. "She's got a bucket. Okay, full of the sea. She's thirsty. No, the bucket is the sea. And that's this boat! She's pretty good at this. Oh, that's the tower! Where it used to be. And a magic circle, and now...tower is in the sea? The tower came to the sea. No wonder it seemed dark all the time. Why would the Master do that? I wonder how far away we are. Oh, there's the barbsnare. I wonder how she got such a good look at it. Oh! The radiant one wants to fight it! He's much too small. Oh, it's gone. She's shrugging. How? Are you asking how to fight it?"

When Nolwenn nodded, the thin woman looked alarmed. "I don't know. The Master tried to kill it many times. I don't know how. He didn't talk to me. Not unless he wanted me to do something for him. He tried to kill it with the magic, and with summonlings. Everything he sent down there got eaten, then sent back up. You saw that, yes? That it can absorb a creature, and make it bad? And then make more copies. The master went down, and didn't come back up, but then the copies with three eyes came up, and there were very many of them. They wanted to eat me, or bring me down to their master, so I had to stay in the cage always. They could be invisible, everything can be invisible."

She shakes her head, distressed. "You should not go back. The Master had the big magics, and he did not come back. I don't want to go back."

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn nods along with the hellym's explanation, deliberately continuing to show her understanding. After her description of her experience with the worm, the wizard relays the information to her companions. "The thing in the tower's basement is called a barbsnare," she reports, "and, like we saw, it deals in eating creatures, absorbing them, and twisting them into its own minions. What we didn't know is that it can apparently make copies of things it has changed so if we go back, I wouldn't expect that tower to be empty. Considering its effectiveness, we'll probably see more of whatever it made out of Red's construct. The tower's master tried to kill it multiple times, probably with his own magic and summoned beings, but he ignored our friend here--who needs a pronounceable name by the way, at least for us--when she wasn't directly useful to him so she doesn't know anything about it except from her time evading its corrupted minions."

"Finally," Nolwenn finishes, "she says we shouldn't go back. If her summoner wasn't able to kill it with all his magicks, she doesn't think we'll be able to." She pauses to gauge Red and Ondros's reactions before delivering her opinion. "On this last point, I disagree."

[Dr.Samurai]

[QUOTE=Dr.Samurai;26009682]

Ondros Loxodon Rune Knight Fighter AC: 18 HP: 29/64 PPer: 12 PInv: 10 PIns: 20 Second Wind: 0/1 | Action Surge: 1/1 Frost Rune: 0/1 | Stone Rune: 1/1 Giant's Might: 3/3 Traits: Darkvision 120ft Conditions: -- I was afraid you'd say that, Ondros sighs. He looks somewhat resigned to himself before saying, Ask her if the thing can drown. He looks to Red, You are right about the jellyfish. But we can re-enter the tower, and smash the windows in. The only problem will be in dealing with those creatures. And escaping a torrent of water. But if it works, the tower fills up, the creature and its minions drown, and no one re-enters. No one that can't breathe water anyways. He looks back to Nolwenn, Otherwise, I agree with the lady, it's too great a risk to go down there and fight that thing. Draelin nearly died, and we weren't even fighting the barbsnare.

[Pyrophilios]

"Hm... my construct is immune to poison. The jellyfish likely use that as their primary means of attack. We could use it as bait to bring them close and then attack from outside the water with thunder based attacks. Those should be effective in water. That would clear the way for us to attack the tentacle outside. We could drive a harpoon through it so, the creature can't retract the appendage, then we cut it off and make sure it bleeds out.

By the way, I'm not sure we can even destroy the windows. They are withstanding immense water pressure. That indicates that the tower is magically reinforced. The tentacle likely extends out of a door or something meant to be opened.

It all depends on how safe we can make the sea environment for ourselves. I can operate under water without trouble and I can produce a cloak of the manta ray for one of you. Alter Self would take care of a third person."

The Red Horns replied

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn shakes her head at Ondros's reluctance to return to the tower. "No, we need to at least try," she says resolutely, "it's too risky to leave alone. Even as remote as we are, if this thing can extend its influence into the water, there's no way we can tell how far it could send its minions. I will not stand quietly by while another Mbala potentially happens." It's clear, though, from a slight crack in her voice that what she saw in the mesa village is still quite a wound on the young wizard. "I can ask about drowning, though. However, I'm not optimistic about the answer, she didn't even know she was underwater until we brought her to the surface."

"And yes," Nolwenn turns to Red, "I like that. If it works, it will at least wound it badly. How about the cold, though? I was barely able to get two levels down before it was dangerous to go further, and I don't doubt that you and Ondros are more capable--"she lets their difference in size and strength speak for itself"--but that wasn't even halfway down to where the worm is."

Leaving that question for her fellow adventurers, Nolwenn turns her attention back to the hellym. "Okay, a couple more questions," she announces, then holds up a single finger for her first one, which she feels will be the easier to convey of the two. The wizard utilizes her illusions and the bucket again, making an image of the barbsnare, putting it into the bucket where it's visible beneath the water, then miming holding it there before moving it out and having it lie, unmoving. She presents this to the hellym and gives her a hopeful shrug. "Could this work?"

The second question is a little more difficult to convey. First, she approaches the woman and points to her then sets her other hand at about where her head would be if she were standing. "You are one hellym," she says, holding up a single finger Next, she points to the sitting woman again, lowers her hand to about 8 inches lower. "But there was a second; you had a younger companion," she continues, "back at the tower, before the disaster." She makes an illusion of the tower to help convey this.

But then she realizes this could be easier. Nolwenn waves her hands in a 'start over' gesture. This time, she conjures an illusory copy of the hellym and raises a single finger. "You, one." Then, she adds a second copy, only shorter. For this one, though, she cycles through about a half dozen different looks, though she tries to keep them close enough to be kin. She points at this one and raises two fingers. "The wizard's books,"--she points to one of the journals--"mentioned another of your kind. What happened to them?" She waits and listens, hoping that the woman's talking through her thoughts will give her something to pounce on.

[agignac]

A small crowd had gathered as they worked on communicating with the hellym. The halfling twins were watching intently, and Krieger and Cyril were also nearby, keeping an eye on the conversation. The hellym had been watching the others with tired curiosity - she was clearly exhausted, but willing to keep talking.

As Nolwenn turned her attention to her again, the hellym concentrated on her illusions. "Oh, we're back to the barbsnare. I wish you wouldn't. She's putting it underwater. She's drowning it? Oh, asking if that would work? I don't know, I haven't had a good look at it. Does it breathe like we do? But I don't think you'll get water in the tower. The Master was working pretty hard on some keep-out magics. Now I think they were keep-water-out magics. Also, what if you do get water in, and it can swim, and it comes up and breaks free? It already pulled one floor down. I guess unless it fell in." She looks frustrated with her lack of knowledge.

As Nolwenn switches to her second question, the hellym starts with her usual murmuring commentary. But she catches on to what Nolwenn is asking quickly, and suddenly reaches out and stops Nolwenn's hand, stopping her from continuing the illusion. Her beautiful voice turns achingly sad. "You're asking about my kin. She died." She opened her mouth as if to say more, then shut it again. Her silver eyes swam with unshed tears, and she lay down on the deck, curled onto her side.

The halflings look up at Nolwenn, their eyes also round and sad. "What did she say? It wasn't good, was it?"

[agignac]

Meanwhile, Draelin dreamt....

Spoiler: the dream

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The construct was came at him in the dream/memory, clinging to him with terrifying tenacity. The thorns that covered its twig-body tore through armour, through clothes, deep into his flesh. Hot blood poured from his wounds, into his eyes. His world was pain and fear, until suddenly it wasn't. He felt himself fall, but he didn't feel himself hit the ground.

The world became silent and dim. Draelin felt a deep peace - it was over. The pain was over, the struggle was over. He felt a brief concern for his friends, but he wasn't able to hold onto it. They would succeed, or they would join him here.

His spirit untethered, he floated in what felt like a generalized "up" direction. The light there was brighter, warm and welcoming. He found himself thinking of his Nan, who had died long ago. And then a cold band of steel wrapped itself around his ankle.

Gasping without breath, Draelin looked down and saw a thick, black tendril grasping his leg. As he looked, a second one appeared and lashed itself around his waist. A terrible coldness began to spread through his spirit, one that he knew he couldn't fight. The tendrils, tentacles, vines....they began to pull. Beyond them, perhaps below, Draelin saw a black hole, a portal, or perhaps a maw. It was terribly hungry, and he was being pulled into it. Draelin struggled, but to no avail. Every movement he made just allowed the tendrils to tighten around him. As he got closer, he began to hear the cries. Moans, cries, whimpers, sounds of agony and terror. Hundreds, thousands of voices. Millions even. All drawn into the maw, all devoured. Draelin began to thrash with all his might, the need to escape primal. The tendrils just pulled him in faster, and he felt the unending agony of his doom began to descend upon him. Draelin screamed.

In his hammock, Draelin screamed. He screamed and thrashed and fell out of the hammock with a thud. The fall woke him up, and he sat bolt upright, face pale and slick with sweat. "I'm not going back," he gasped.

[The Hellbug]

Nolwenn's heart begins to sink the moment the hellym stops her. As soon as she had read about there being another one, she had been wanting this question answered. The prisoner hadn't seemed like a person in grief, and she had supposed there was something else going on. But no, it appears that shock and terror had merely won out, and the worst case has already always been the only case. The wizard's curiosity still isn't satisfied since the hellym clearly knows the why of it--was she already a victim of the wizard before the worm? Did she perish in the disaster that brought the tower here? Could the barbsnare have eaten her?--but, even if she weren't understanding of the other woman's reticence, this isn't the time for more questions.

Instead, Nolwenn sits down next to the erstwhile prisoner and lays a comforting hand on her shoulder, hopefully a universal message of empathy. "No, it's not," she answers the halflings, needing to hold back tears herself with the words, "she says she died."

It's about half a minute before the wizard reports the answer to her other question to her allies. "The tower is well warded," she explains, not moving from her spot, "that's probably why the water pressure's done as little damage as it's done so far. And I think Red's right about another thing, too: the tentacle-hole in the wall? That's probably just the door." She shakes her head in disappointment. "I should have thought about that earlier. And if that's the case, I bet water doesn't even..."

And that's when Draelin wakes with a scream. Instantly alert, Nolwenn looks towards its source anxiously, but her head swiftly pivots back to the grieving hellym, and she decides to let her already-upright companions tend to their elven companion.

[Pyrophilios]

The Red Horns stepped to Draelin's side an frowned with worry: "You don't have to. Relax, everything is under control."

He moved over to Nolwenn and Ondros to speak quietly with them: "I have a solution to combat the hypothermia as well. My prestidigitation spell can warm three objects to comfortable temperatures - if I target our armor, that should be enough to keep us going for a few minutes.

What we need now is a large and durable harpoon that Ondros can wield. The larger, the better."

[agignac]

Krieger perked up at that. "We have a harpoon! A big one!"